Peacemaking

Friday, October 7, 2016

From secular humanism to all
recognized religions, my applied learning in all my relations, in my language,
our moral defense of all that any of us does, of how s/he justifies what s/he
and others do unto each other, is religious.The significance of the framing, application and interpretation of all
data we collect and apply to our relations to our species and the environment
we share rests on the moral assumption of some standard of what, practically
speaking, is true or false, right or wrong, trivial or significant rests on
some ultimate personal and social authority tells us, an ultimate guiding set
of truths we hold to be self-evident.In
a continuing discussion with a Buddhist and a Catholic friend, I found myself
expressing my creed this way.Call it my
principle epistemological axiom, or as I feel it, my religious faith as to
where and how my god leads my living and learning…thought I’d share—love and
peace, hal

Here's my interfaith transcendence of sin:
I call "sin" convictions as to right and wrong that the will to
transcend that framing of the problem to define it as resting on one's
convictions without responding empathically, changing course, in response to the
voices whose continuing response that emanate from harm that comes from
maintaining a fixed order--security, as in my blessed pension--regardless of
the harm it does, to adding take time to give weight--balance of power we hold,
ultimately as morally responsible actors, to being swayed/responsive to whose
order systematically/habitually holds.

That is the understanding Laozi, the attitude
toward power, which I have learned to translate into different terms,
thinking of likely audience in theirs, a matter of simultaneous
translation actually. And of course you where this light, the
academically/publicly subsidized freedom to let my data be the emergent
range of voices of those harmed/left out/left aside, you notice where lies,
you hear it and are moved to consider its implications--the options and
choices it offers you and those with whom you live and learn. And
the devil is the continuing energy/attention we devote to maintaining
the norms and practices in terms of which we respond to the harm institutionalized
and personal exercise (as in how we relate with and learn with
children) we all confront in all our multiple relations. The light,
the enduring lives of our children over generations, which I consider my sacred
enlightenment, and that of others I learn to and from: that is my supreme
deity, source of God's wisdom, how I aim to learn and learn from and with
others during my lifetime, lies...call it living by learning and loving my way.

Wednesday, October 5, 2016

I
recently had occasion to remember an interview that Contemporary Justice Review founding editor Dennis Sullivan
conducted with me, asking me to account for how my own empiricism—i.e., what I
had learned FROM rather than ABOUT my data sources from knowing them, from
(ex-)prisoners including assistant instructors at my first job, through
survivors of ritual abuse as my primary data—had shaped my conception of how
violence and its peacemaking transformation manifest themselves (CJR 6,1: 69-80, 2003).The trauma that came of trying to give voice
to survivors and their advocates in the face of skepticism among my daily and
professional relations has pretty much lifted since I retired.I offer this narrative of how I gained the
understanding of how violence and peacemaking work that guides me still, and of
course, I’m still learning:

Ofcoursedoesnotyourexampleofthesinglemotherwhoisforcedtoworkoutsidethehome
for wagesso she andher children canstay alivecall for
thecreation of differentkindsoffamilies,adifferentsenseofkinship,topickuponarecentinterestofLarryTifft?ThatiswhyIamsoattractedtoCatholicWorkercommunities:theyarealternativefamiliesforpeopleforcedintoignominynotthroughdialogueaboutalternativefamiliesbutbycreatingthem.Butyouhaveexamplesinyourownworklifewhenyouhaveredefinedkinshipbytakingontheburdensofothers.True?

Itishardenoughforpeopletowatchavideotapeofamurder-robberyconference.Manypeople in class wrote
of how women especially had left class in tears.While I consider tearscleansing,Ialsorecognizehowharditistolistentoothers’storiesofseriousvictimization,knowingthatyoucan’tdomorethanlisten.Icanonlybegintoimaginehowmuchinanyofourchildhoodlives,atremendousunfairness(youwouldcallit“injustice”)wasdone,withnohopeof remedy. Mostofall,obediencetrainingentailsmakingusshowtheemotionsthataresociallyacceptable,anddissociatingwithourtruefeelings,asin,“Stopcrying.”Whenyougettheexceptionalsurvivortalkingpubliclyabouthorrendous,unstoppabletorture,theemotionsyouhavebeentaughttosuppressmustbeimposing.WhenIhearcolleagues’reactionsafterbringingsurvivorstoconferenceslikeJSA’s,Ifirstandforemosthear:Thatwashard.Idon’tknowwhattobelieve.AndIfeelthemsaying:Idon’twanttohearanymore.I’moverwhelmed.

Thefactremainsthatyes,whenIstartedsponsoringvoicesofthoseIbelievetobesurvivorsofintergenerationalritualabuseandgovernment-sponsoredmind-controlprogram-ming,peoplestartedwalkingawayfromme.Whenafterconferencepresentations,oldcollegialfriendscametome,havingjustheardsurvivors,andtoldmethattheyjustwantedtoknowmorebeforetheydecidedwhattomakeoftheirstories,Iwouldreferthemtowebsites
where they could read more if they wereinterested.
But I could tell that they reallywouldrathernotpursuetheissue.Iwasrespectedintheseexchanges,andyetIcouldseethatwhatIhadofferedwasmorethantheywantedtodealwith.That’swhyIsaythatIdon’tfeelbitter.SixyearsagoIwasinthedepthsofaclinicaldepressionafterlisteningtostoriesofchildhoodtorture,death,andsurvivalthatdefiedmypreviousimaginationofthehumanconditionaroundme.HowmanytimesIhavewishedthatIhadnotheardwhatIwastold.AsMaxWebersaidindescribingthecallingofthescientist,how“inconvenient.”

MyfirstexposuretothisinterviewprocesswasanotherCJRforumonfeministjusticein1999(1:4)whereMedaChesney-Lind,DianneMartin,andItookturnsinaconversation.Inthe
experience, I felt the validation that informants ofmine have given so much credit to fortheirpersonalsurvivalandprogressinbuildingcommunity.Hereyouhaveledmethroughtheprocessagain.Dearinterviewer,inthisprocess,yourexample,too,hashelpedshowmehowpeacemakingworks.Iamhonored.

About Me

I retired Jan. 2009 from after 33 years on the criminal justice faculty at Indiana University, Bloomington. I continue not to charge for any form of public service, including speaking and consulting, and now have plenty of free time to do so on request. I do not do social networking. I regularly monitor just one email account: pepinsky@indiana.edu; my home phone number is 1-614-885-6341; my skype name is halpep. My papers and such are archived at http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/findingaids/view?brand=general&docId=InU-Ar-VAA9639.xml&doc.view=entire_text.
I am known as a co-founder of "peacemaking criminology." Page proofs of my latest, 2006 U of Ottawa Press book, Peacemaking: Reflections of a Radical Criminologist, are freely available at http://critcrim.org/sites/default/files/Pepinsky_proofs_0.pdf , the end of which lists my publications, nine books and over 80 articles and chapters in all, on a wide range of subjects from the international to the interpersonal level. My preceding book, A Criminologist's Quest for Peace, is also freely available at http://critcrim.org/pepinsky, and a pdf of Myths That Cause Crime is on the critcrim.org home page.